The quick version: I was in Panama City, Panama (Central America) working. By chance I ran into a street performer. I introduced myself, and he invited me to the local IBM meeting.

At the meeting everyone was excited to meet a new magician, and they were performing a lot of excellent magic. When they finished, the president of the IBM asked if I would like to perform.

I had known this was coming, and I had been thinking about what I could do that would really impress these guys. I decided on some memorized deck work. I stood up and began my intro, during which I somewhat nervously false cut and twisted the deck in my hands to warm up. I talked and made eye contact with each of the magicians, and one of them sort of winked and nodded his head.

I took a chance. The play worked and the payoff was great indeed. It was a great night for memorized deck workers everywhere.

(He happened to catch the 9 of Diamonds flashing on the bottom of the deck and thought I was fishing. Who'd a thunk it.)

Take care,

Jered

This choice is easy.

Some months back, I was running a magic routine on the streets, disguised as a homeless guy. I'm also a seasonal worker at Disneyworld, and every season they give us four 'comp' tickets for the parks, and on the night in question I had them on me in my wallet.

Well, this Irish family (a father and three kids---two of them little twin girls) came by, and the father was yelling at a beggar (a real one), saying that he had no charity to spare when he himself had received none despite all his hard work.

I did the ballerina hank to attract the kids' attention, and then I asked the father how things were going, and he related the following: He was a street-sweeper in Belfast, and had saved for five years to bring his kids to Disney. His wife had to stay home due to the fact that they couldn't afford for both of them to take a week off. He had enough for some three-day park-hopper passes, but couldn't afford any nearby hotels, or cab fares, so he had to take the bus from a way off, and due to this, they had missed a day (today) and were leaving the day after tomorrow.

His kids were really upset, he said, about not getting to go to the MGM studios park and see the 'finding-Nemo' show and autograph-signing.

I said, "Well, sir, I'd like to help, but as you can see (I pulled out and showed them my empty wallet, palming the "comp" tickets in the process). I got no Euros neither---except this one (I produced a folding Euro and did the bitten coin routine).

The Girls were surprised and amused, and then I did the floating flash-rose trick for them, and sure enough, one of them asked the magic question: "Can you do magic and make it so we can see Dissywould?"

The father, looking embarrassed, apologized and dropped a dollar in my hat. The little one protested, "But, Da! If he can do magic...!" "Shush!" the father said. "I'm sorry. She thinks you can make tickets for the parks!" he added.

I said, "Hmmm! Well that IS a toughie! But I'll give it a try!" I used the eclipse bag to appear a double-envelope from nowhere, show it empty, then after some cute byplay with the kids, the tickets were inside!

The father was stunned, the girls were elated and kept jumping up and down shouting, "We told you! We told you!" And the boy stared at me a moment and slowly said, "Are....are you like...an Angel??"

The father quickly silenced his son, but then quietly added, "Uhm....I mean...you're NOT, right?"

I shook my head, smiling. The father went on, "Well, sir...I uh...I have NO idea how you did that. Is there a hidden camera here or something? No? Well, I wish I could pay you. Here..."

And he gave me his nice jacket (remember, I looked homeless) and I tried to refuse, but he insisted. Well, I got three hugs and kisses, and a nice wool-leather jacket out of the deal, and to this day, that jacket hangs in my trophy case at home.

Isn't it amazing when something goes wrong and the Gods are with you...I was performing a Center Tear recently and somehow I missed glimpsing the name. So I asked a few general questions to try and get something right and out of nowhere I just guessed that the person he was thinking about was'George Bush' and was right!!!

-Jared

Mine happened the other day at work. All the guys that I work with know that I am into magic and during the slow time, my buddy walked up with a magic challenge. He asked if I had any cards on me, I said "no", so he proceeded to hand me two rubber bands. If your so magical, do something with these. Needless to say, I performed "Crazy Man's Handcuffs" and the whole crowd just walked away stunned. He did not see how two normal rubber bands could produce such powerful magic, and ya know what.......... I'll never tell.

Phil